This year has been an odd one when it comes to Salmon fishing. The runs were late, the runs were small, the rivers were flood stage, the rivers were low. In essence there just wasn't any "normal" fishing. However, the Silver Salmon season is beginning and is looking strong. The annual dipnetting trip to the Kenai/Kasilof Rivers was abandoned last year in part due to my move to Fairbanks. Long story short, in 2007, I switched dipnetting rivers and began to work the Copper river for my winter supply of salmon. The Copper River is different. Swifft silt laden mirky water with bizzare unpredictable current changes. If you fall in the Copper River, you are NOT in a good position. People die in this river, people disappear. Luckily the majority of the people who go to the Copper for their salmon, go with harnesses and rope and are vigilant by tying themselves off to a tree or the nearest boulder to ensure that if they get a 50+ pound King Salmon or slip on the rocks that they won't get sucked under. I really couldn't emphasize enough, the 
danger of this river. Entire trees can come shooting up from the depths just to disappear down into the current seconds later. Dipnetting is an Alaska resident gig and is simple. Hanging 20 foot or more poles off the rocks into eddies, the fish simply swim into your net and you lift them out of the water. The Copper is huge but, the fish use the eddies to rest so you can get numerous salmon. Sometimes three or four sockeye at a time will swim into the net. In 2007, my friend Josh, his cousin Ashton, and myself went down to the Copper river and we managed to net about 75 Sockeye in a single day. With that said, the fishing this year has be strange. Without a boat, people have been doing overall, poorly. The high waters have moved the salmon out to the middle of the river leaving dipnetting a slow business and some people have dipnetted all weekend for four fish! Yes, I even spent a whole weekend for four fish. I decided I had to turn my attention to another means of getting salmon. My friend Erin, knew someone who had a fish wheel and even in high water we were able to get 51 Salmon in the wheel and I dipnetted for an afternoon and added ten more to that. The river was so high due to a very large amount of rain that we even had to wade out into the river up to our knees to even get on the ramp that lead out to the fish wheel. Me and Jen left the Copper river with 61 Sockeye salmon this year which amounted to about 225lbs of filet. I surely am thankful to Erin this year for 
hooking us up with a wheel, othewise it was starting to look pretty bleak. Thats the nice thing about a fish wheel, on a good night, you can get up to a hundred salmon but, even when its slow to the point where you get a single salmon per hour, over the course 48 hours, you still have plenty of fish to filet. While 61 was well under my alloted amount of salmon on my permit (I'm allowed 200 salmon on the Copper River) it was well worth a little sweat and a long drive. As of July 28th over 700,000 Salmon have passed the sonar operated by fish and game, and are currently working their way up the Copper River.
danger of this river. Entire trees can come shooting up from the depths just to disappear down into the current seconds later. Dipnetting is an Alaska resident gig and is simple. Hanging 20 foot or more poles off the rocks into eddies, the fish simply swim into your net and you lift them out of the water. The Copper is huge but, the fish use the eddies to rest so you can get numerous salmon. Sometimes three or four sockeye at a time will swim into the net. In 2007, my friend Josh, his cousin Ashton, and myself went down to the Copper river and we managed to net about 75 Sockeye in a single day. With that said, the fishing this year has be strange. Without a boat, people have been doing overall, poorly. The high waters have moved the salmon out to the middle of the river leaving dipnetting a slow business and some people have dipnetted all weekend for four fish! Yes, I even spent a whole weekend for four fish. I decided I had to turn my attention to another means of getting salmon. My friend Erin, knew someone who had a fish wheel and even in high water we were able to get 51 Salmon in the wheel and I dipnetted for an afternoon and added ten more to that. The river was so high due to a very large amount of rain that we even had to wade out into the river up to our knees to even get on the ramp that lead out to the fish wheel. Me and Jen left the Copper river with 61 Sockeye salmon this year which amounted to about 225lbs of filet. I surely am thankful to Erin this year for hooking us up with a wheel, othewise it was starting to look pretty bleak. Thats the nice thing about a fish wheel, on a good night, you can get up to a hundred salmon but, even when its slow to the point where you get a single salmon per hour, over the course 48 hours, you still have plenty of fish to filet. While 61 was well under my alloted amount of salmon on my permit (I'm allowed 200 salmon on the Copper River) it was well worth a little sweat and a long drive. As of July 28th over 700,000 Salmon have passed the sonar operated by fish and game, and are currently working their way up the Copper River.
